Isis is using schools in Raqqa to 'brainwash children and train them with weapons'
The group teaches 'its own radical and brutal Islamic rules to children'
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Your support makes all the difference.Isis is using schools to brainwash children and train them with weapons, according to a report by activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently.
The terror group has "worked systematically on sabotaging education process in Raqqa province and rebuilt it based on the group’s rules and radical methodology," the report states.
Upon taking control of Raqqa in 2014, the group closed all schools, burnt students' books, and forced teachers to take repentance courses and pledge not to teach the old curriculum.
Although the schools were later reopened, several subjects "such as physics, chemistry, philosophy, biology and Christian religious education" were banned.
The group also began "teaching its own radical and brutal Islamic rules to children" including lessons on Sharia and the Arabic language.
The children are also given weapons training and ideological indoctrination to prepare them to fight in the group's so-called caliphate, the report states.
Parents who have fled Isis territory have said their children were taught how to make bombs or sent home with Caucasian dolls dressed in orange jumpsuits to behead as "homework".
Isis has advertised its use of children as fighters and suicide bombers and has featured children as executioners in its gory propaganda videos.
Earlier this year, Europol warned that the children of foreign fighters living in Isis territory and Syria and Iraq are being trained to become the "next generation" of terrorists.
More than 50 children from the UK are living in the “caliphate”, where there are also an estimated 31,000 pregnant women, an investigation by the Quilliam Foundation found earlier this year.
There are also concerns the number of young boys forced into Isis' ranks will increase as young children taken to live in its territories or born to "jihadi brides" grow up.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently has previously described the children as a “lost generation”.
It raised concerns that even if the terrorist group is defeated, their young recruits could continue to conduct its brutal atrocities.
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